Bob Anderson

The continuation of Paul Rubenstein’s account of his early adventures with John Rourke after the Night of the War. So Paul, John and Natalia have reunited with Natalia bringing a message for John from her uncle. Unfortunately they get sidetracked after Captain Cole wounds Natalia. They find themselves on a nuclear submarine headed to the new west coast. There they are to find six ICBMs that survived the war. Only the new west coast is swarming with a crazy religious cult. Also Cole is not on a mission from U.S. II but has his own agenda. He is a white supremacist who plans to use the missiles to destroy Chicago and thus the Soviet occupation. Luckily Rourke and friends foil this mission.

Then Rourke finds his family but has a more serious problem. The Earth is doomed with the ionization of the atmosphere. Soon it will burst into flames and end all life. But General Ismael Varakov gives Rourke a way to save his family. Colonel Rozzdestvesnskiy of the KGB is building the Womb. At the former site of Norad he plans to go into suspended animation and emerge five centuries later to rule the world. He will shoot down the Eden Project a plan by the western democracies to repopulate the Earth with select people put into suspended animation and send out on a long orbit of the solar system. Rourke, Natalia and a combined Soviet Spetsnaz unit and U.S. unit manage to destroy the Womb and Rourke and his family go into suspended animation as the Earth bursts into flames.

The second volume of the Rourke Chronicles is once again a rehash of Survivalist books this time #6-9. This time they had to include some other method of telling the story since Rubenstein wasn’t involved in #8-9. So the authors resort to mostly interviews with Rourke and some salvaged records by archeologists. Mostly notes from U.S. II, Rozdestvesnskiy’s dairy and General Valkov’s notes. Some of these were interesting but for the most part nothing really new was explored in the book. Just like the last one it was mostly a rehash of the original books and didn’t have much new. I recommend to get the original books and just forego this series.

Michael Rourke finally finds his father John Rourke. John has been captive with an alien race of grays that decide to release him. So now John finds out the dire situation of the world. Of the assassination of Wolfgang Mann the leader of New Germany. The alliance by a faction of the alien KI with nationalist Russians. The death of his newborn son to the alien virus. The biggest threat is the global cabal that is about to seize the world’s governments. Luckily Michael and his family have been planning ahead as he taught them. Michael already has a secret cavern in Missouri set up to operate from. So finally the whole Rourke family fake their death as the insidious global cabal seizes the US government.

There was a glitch on Amazon so I was able to be one of the lucky that ordered this book before it was supposed to be officially released. Finally John Rourke after being absent for the last two books is now part of the story. I think Sharon and Bob are finally getting comfortable with the story. It is a lot more tightly written. Their first books were a bit scattered all over the place and somewhat weird. We finally have an understanding of the enemy. Both the alien factions and the globalist cabal that is pulling the strings. I am enjoying this revived series and think that Jerry would be proud to see his creating continuing on after his death.

Things are not going well for the Rourke family. John’s newborn son has died from the alien virus that is going around. Neo-Nazis are still trying to assassinate them. John Rourke is still captive of the aliens. The New World Order has infiltrated government and taken over the currency of the world’s governments. President Michael Rourke can see that the takeover of society is imminent. With Paul Rubenstein they gather together a dedicated group of people to fight the coming takeover. They set up a new retreat in the Fantastic Caverns in Missouri for their base of operations. The search for John Rourke leads to a secret alien base in Alaska and the story ends as they are poised to assault this base.

The Survivalist sage continues. It started off slow but picked up. I found myself getting into the story. I think that Sharon and Bob are really getting the hang of writing for the Survivalist. John Rourke is still absent from the book as the action centers on his friend Paul and son Michael. This book is a reflection of our current times with a mysterious secretive group of elites out to control the world through currency manipulation and overthrowing governments. Of course we also get Neo-Nazis, Russian-alien alliances to also worry about. The book ends at a cliffhanger as Michael assaults the alien base with the aliens prepared. Looking forward to the next book next year.

Throughout John Rourke’s adventures since the Night of the War he has had one man he could count on. Paul Rubenstein a nerdy assistant publisher from New York was on the airliner that Rourke was on when the war started. He was the only one that stuck with him when he went for help for the survivors on the plane. Rubenstein knew that to survive he would have to stick with John Rourke. He had a willingness to learn and learned how to shoot and ride a motorcycle. Eventually a strong bond of friendship formed were the two were like brothers. Eventually he became a son-in-law by marrying his daughter and cemented his place in the Rourke family. This book is the story told in Paul’s own words of the events chronicles in the first five books.

The first spin off series of the Survivalist. I really wanted to like this book. I thought it would chronicle the untold story of Paul Rubenstein. Instead all it did was rehash the first five books. Nothing new to read and seemed a pointless endeavor. I hope that if there is a second book in this series it has something more original.

John Rourke has been captured by the grey aliens. Now his son desperately searches for his whereabouts. Of course he has a lot of threats to deal with. A pair of psychotic serial killers have kidnapped the Rourke children. Neo-Nazi terrorists have launched a successful attack on the main government building in New Germany. They succeeded in killing all the top government officials including the President Wolfgang Mann. Michael Rourke comes to the conclusion be can not meet his obligations as both President of the U.S. and to his family so decides to resign. All clues point that John Rourke is being held at a secret Russian undersea base called Deep Star.

So this is the final book so far in the Survivalist series. There is another one in the works called Lodestar so the story is not over yet. Interesting the main character the Survivalist himself is only in three chapters. Still a lot happens in this book. Michael Rourke decides to resign. His stepfather is killed in a terrorist attack. At the end John Rourke’s newborn baby dies from the virus that the aliens unleashed. I wonder how Jerry would have written these books if he was still alive. Still I love that this series is still kicking and apparently thriving. A new one is in the works and there are two spin off series which we will get into later.

If anyone is interested you can check out official website. It has bios on all involved with the resurrection of this series. You can buy books. There’s items like baseball caps, mugs a Zippo lighter that John Rourke uses. Also an A.G Russell Sting IA knife that the character has used through the series and a custom made Bowie Knife. Great for using against your enemies.

The aliens are still working at destabilizing human society. They have allied with Neo-Nazis to cause terrorist attacks and destabilized governments. A cabal of the super wealth are also manipulating the currency for their own nefarious ends. A mutant strain of bugs carrying the hantavirus are released. And a faction of Russians are at world domination again. They have allied themselves with the Ki the other alien faction that wants to take back the Earth for themselves. John Rourke finds out that before the Night of the War the President transferred secret documents on the U.S. governments dealings with extraterrestrials. The documents are stored inside Mount Rushmore. The national landmark is under a sheet of ice from a glacial and under cover as an archeology project Rourke recovers the documents. At the end he is attacked by the aliens and a traitor manages to make sure that John Rourke is captured.

The third book in the revived series is a great improvement. A lot of interesting stuff is happening. It does represent the times we live in. Secret cabals of superwealthy manipulating the economy. Terrorism and mutant strains of bugs carrying deadly diseases. Mysterious alien races. And of course the old reliable enemies in the Survivalist series Nazis and Russians. An interesting continuation of the series.

Aliens have attacked the inauguration of Michael Rourke as president of the United States. Over 1,200 dead and large parts of Honolulu are destroyed. Later Michael Rourke’s car is attacked in the countryside and he must survive and evade the alien clones. John Rourke leads the fight against the alien threat in searching for his son and attacking their secret base in Hawaii. They also have to contend with traitors in the government working with the aliens to further their own power.

The second new book in the revived Survivalist series was somewhat of a let down. I didn’t think that the story was focused and tended to just meander along. They also had a tendency to over describe stuff like the tunnel system in Hawaii or the philosophy of the alien Ki. Still the series does get better. Sharon and Bob do a good job of staying true to the characters that Jerry established. The basic storyline is sound and there are plenty of interesting enemies to keep the Rourke family occupied.